Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 - Round Six Report

GM Monika Socko and IM Ray Robson leading

The City of Tromsø has with all it's students 75.000 inhabitants and is a Centre in Northern Norway. You see the Island of Tromsø taken from Fløya at this picture - you reach the Mountain by cable car. The University in Tromsø has 9000 students, and 2500 employees, and makes Tromsø lively with more than 75.000 inhabitants winter time. In summer it's far less of course. Most students are like migrant birds, they fly to southern areas when summer comes.

Tromsø is blessed with a spectacular nature where Mountain and Ocean meets as you see from this picture. In the summer we have Midnight Sun and the light in this region is quite special. The field in this years edition of Arctic Chess Challenge is composed of 120 players with 13 GMs, 13 IMs, 1 WGM. The top seeded 2550+ players in the field are GM Bartosz Socko (2656), GM Igor Khenkin (2634), GM Yuri Drozdovskij (2620), GM Emanuel Berg (2610), GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (2583), GM Vadim Malakhatko (2570), GM Sarunas Sulskis (2559). The big story is that none of these 7 players are in Top-3 after 6 rounds!

Morten Sand and IA Panagiotis "Takis" Nikolopoulos

Mr. Morten Sand (left) is former Vice President and legal adviser in FIDE. Now he is an advisor of both Tromsø 2014, and Arctic Chess Challenge. He works hard for Norway's and Tromsø's candidature for the 41st Chess Olympiad in 2014. To the right you see International Arbiter Panagiotis "Takis" Nikolopoulos who is Chief Arbiter during Arctic Chess Challenge 2009. He is a well respected man who was Chief Arbiter in two important World Championship matches: Kramnik - Leko 2004 and Anand-Kramnik 2008.

Bartosz, Szymon and Monika Socko

Here you see the leader of the tournament after 6 rounds - no, not top seed Bartosz Socko but his wife Monika! GM Monika Socko (2449) She beat GM Matthew Turner (2517) from England in the 5th and GM Sarunas Sulskis from Lithuania in the 6th round to reach 5.5/6 with a TPR of 2779! She even had a winning endgame versus GM Emanuel Berg from Sweden in round 3 but didn't convert it. Monika also had her share of fortune versus 18 years old FM Joachim Thomassen (2300), but you need some to stay in the top of such a tournament.

Bartosz Socko (2656) started out in the first round with a draw against a local 2100-player. Mr. Frode Bull Jæger played as a Grandmaster as white till move 23 - where he could have got a clear winning edge by 23.Nd5! Qa8 24.Be7 exf3 25.Bxf8 Bxf8 26.Ne7+ Kg7 27.Rc1! according to Rybka 3 (replay bellow). Bartosz seems out of from in Tromsø and he even was in problems as white against GM Amon Simutowe in the 2nd round. After 6 rounds GM Bartosz Socko already gave away 2 points and he is in 23rd place... You also see Szymon Socko (7) who is playing this event with his parents! Szymon has won one game so far.

Ray Robson

14-years old IM Ray Robson is one of the most interesting starts and he played great in the first 6th rounds and ties for first with Monika Socko! He comes from a huuuge performance in the US Junior Championship where he scored 6/7 versus classified opposition with a tremendous USCF performance of 2751!!! Ray is the greatest talent in US chess since Hikaru Nakamura and you can expect this guy to reach 2700+. Through history only a few players did win the US Championship under 20 at such a young age as 13. Robson is accompanied by his father and mother on his visit to Tromsø and they are great support. Ray's father is so down to earth and supportive - and he reminded me of Magnus' father. We all know what he meant for Carlsen's success and such a factor might make the difference.

Ray started out winning the two first rounds with aggressive chess, finding small combinations and winning with style. Then he had to give away a draw in the 3rd round to FM Kjetil Stokke who has achieved a 2500+ performance after 6 rounds with 4/6 and a TPR of 2500+. In the 5th and 6th round Robson beat GM Vadim Malakhatko (2570) with white in a Caro Kann and GM Allan Stig Rasmussen (2536) as black in a Catalan. Two stunning victories you have to check out! If Robson beats Monika Socko in the 7th round as white the IM might be a full point ahead of the field with 13 GMs - that would be quite something! Robson has 5.5/6 with a TPR of 2758!!

Sarunas Sulskis - Igor Khenkin

GM Sarunas Sulskis (2559) from Lithuania here playing a draw with GM Igor Khenkin (2634) from Germany in the 5th round. Sulskis was in clear leader after 4 rounds as the only player with a perfect score. His loss to GM Monika Socko sent him down to 7th place with 4.5/6. Khenkin has the same score at 8th place and he still hasn't lost a game.

Jan Radulski and Marijan Petrov

GM Jan Radulski (2539) from Bulgaria sunbathing with another Bulgarian, IM Marijan Petrov (2479) in front of the playing venue, Scandic Hotel Tromsø. They played a short, friendly draw together in the 5th round and then both Bulgarian's won the 6th round and are in the race for first with 5/6 and shared 3-6th place.

Luca Shytaj - Yuri Drozdovskij

IM Luca Shytaj (2455) (to the left) is a strong IM from Italy who beat GM Yuri Drozdovskij (2620) (right side) from Ukraine in the 3rd round! Quite an upset and Drozdovskij also lost to IM Kalle Kiik from Estonia (2475) in the 6th round and is only 16th with 4/6 so far. GM Drozdovskij married 22 years old WGM Natalia Zdebskaja (2412) in July this year and she is also participating with the same score as her husband.

Jon Ludvig Hammer

GM Jon Ludvig Hammer became Norway's 10th Grandmaster in January this year after winning Gjøvik 100th anniversary by half a point with a TPR of 2653. He has been a student at Norwegian College of Elite Sport together with Magnus Carlsen for 3 years and his Elo went from 2306 when he started in July 2006 till his peak-Elo of 2583 in July 2009! GM Hammer has 5/6 after beating IM Luis Javier Bernal Moro as white with a King's attack in the Sicilian. He is the Norwegian hope in the tournament.

Peter Flermoen

This is 13-years old Peter Flermoen from Harstad and he already has his own page at Wikipedia! This player is tactically gifted and he now works with his overall understanding of the game with IM Emil Hermansson from Sweden. Flermoen is the greatest chess talent from Northern Norway since the days of natural player Paul Svedenborg from Narvik in the 60's - Svedenborg got a line in the Latvian Gambit named after him. Will Peter Flermoen one day become the first GM of Northern Norway? He started out with a stunning 3/4 and a TPR of 2400+ in this years Arctic Chess Challenge.

Susan Polgar and Rosi Floer

Susan Polgar getting lessons in fishing from Rosi Floer, one of the organizers. Rosi speak fluent Hungarian and guess if these two ladies had a lot to talk about on Susan's native language! Polgar was guest of Honor from Sunday till Thursday and she shot a lot of nice pictures from the Arctic region. Photo provided by Ulf Ragnvald Hansen.

I have to bring you a picture of a Seal in the Arctic aquarium Polaria too. It's cute isn't it? Polaria also has a panorama cinema with a nice movie from the spectacular Svalbard. It also has an Arctic aquarium and some other stuff so it's well worth a visit. Arctic Chess Challenge is much more than a chess tournament. The social side events are quite important, and utterly popular even among the Grandmasters!

Cable car in the Mountain, Boat trip, fishing, guided City tour and a football event arranged by Mr. Simen Agdestein is some of the stuff the players are offered. Yes, GM Simen Agdestein, a former player for the Norwegian National team is also part of the organization staff and he invited a delegation of young players from South Africa to the tournament. A total of 12 South Africans are playing. Photo provided by Hanne Cecilie Hvam.

The official homepage of Arctic Chess Challenge with results, table and games.

This article with photos is written by Sven Wisløff Nilssen, a former runner up in the Norwegian Junior Champion 1989 and Correspondence Chess Champion of Norway 1995 with a ICCF-rating of 2517. He is the official writer for ACC and makes daily reports from Arctic Chess Challenge which is presented at one of Scandinavia's most popular Chess Blog's, Sjakkfantomet.